Apple's Siri may one day know you, and only you

Siri's new skill Apple has won a patent that would teach Siri to know only its owner's voice—and not act on anyone else's. The ability dovetails with another element of the patent, which would allow Siri to act essentially as your lady-in-waiting: you tell Siri a command, and she in turn takes that order to other smart devices, activating them. Part of the identity process would include a request from Siri to type in a passcode if the AI didn't recognize your voice, a two-factor authentication step. As Patently Apple notes, currently Siri responds to speech—any speech—not your particular voice, cadence or pitch. The ability to do this would be a game changer, and not just for Apple. Any voice command system that only recognized your voice would have enhanced security—until someone figured out how to steal your voice.

New York's self-driving test New York has given a green light to self-driving car tests on its public roads. Like California, Arizona and other states, New York will now allow companies to apply to have their autonomously-kitted cars on highways—as long as the Department of Motor Vehicles says yes. A law on New York's books about one hand always being on the steering wheel had made the possibility of testing moot. But even now, with this new permission, a licensed driver must be in the self-driving car. Permission is only granted through April 2018. (Via Democrat & Chronicle)

Apple sued Australia is suing Apple for bricking the iPhones and iPads of reportedly hundreds of customers who had their phones repaired by third parties for problems such as broken screens. (Via Reuters)

Spring Clean Spring is here, time to sweep out the old and bring in the new. With tech, that means making sure your systems are running smoothly, and you've swept out any bugs or poorly secured apps and operating systems from your gadgets. Not sure where to start? We thought you'd never ask, as we have seven steps to spring clean your tech today.